Three years ago, when Jim Klotz became senior vice president and CIO of The PMA Insurance Group, the carrier's IT assets were purchased and managed in a decentralized environment. Consequently, some of the company's PCs were nearly 10 years old, seven or eight versions of operating systems were installed across the company, and technology assets were accounted for manually.

Now, the Blue Bell, Pa.-based commercial property and casualty insurer has more control of its IT environment. The company refreshed approximately 1,100 desktops, which run on Microsoft Windows 95 or NT. In addition, the company is tracking the hardware and software configurations on its PCs with an automated system called NetCensus from Tally Systems Corp. based in Lebanon, N.H.